Hey, I'm new to this forum, but I've been lurking around quite a while.

I'm thinking of cosplaying as Erik, the phantom of the opera, this year (it's gonna take a while, but then I have plenty of time to prepare, especially since there are some hurdles to take...)
First of all, I'm a lady... and well... Erik is not... so I will have to make myself look more manly, lol (having small breasts is an advantage this time!), but one of the tricky things is also that the kind of suit Erik wears of course only come in man's sizes... will require some fiddling and patience to find one that fits me, lol

Also I have one other problem and that is that I have dreads, only very young ones, but still... the volume they give makes it impossible to wear a wig, and I'm not even speaking of slicking it back with gel which I'm not even going to try (especially because dreads have the tendency to absorb stuff, and I'm worried I might not get the gel out anymore... ) Of course shaving/cutting is not an option, so I thought getting a large hat and seeing if I can fit my hair in there... uhhhm, fingers crossed? :s

Also I'm a student, so I'm kinda low on money, like REALLY low. Mostly it's the clothes that are bothering me... the deformity (which I WILL be doing!) will probably be the easiest hurdle since I also larp and have some experience creating fake wounds, scars, that sort of stuff. On a smaller scale, yes, but it will probably be easy to extrapolate that experience to my entire face. Also I already have makeup and such, only thinking of getting latex prostetics...

So if anyone has some advice... I'd be glad to hear it!
Ever since I saw the Phantom of the Opera it's been a small dream of mine to cosplay as Erik some day, and though it might be tricky... I really hope that can become reality. Maybe not soon, but some day anyway...